There are four pivotal information technologies that are rapidly reshaping how enterprises operate: mobile technology, business analytics, cloud computing, and social business. All four of these technologies are potentially disruptive, and they also come with unique security concerns. Many people fear the security implications of employees bringing their own mobile devices to work, or storing mission critical databases in public cloud environments. Fear shouldn’t drive organizations away from these potentially transformative technologies. How are organizations overcoming their fears? How are they breaking though the “security wall”?

Recently IBM released the results of its 2012 Tech Trends Report, which looks at the adoption patterns of these four technologies. It is based on a survey of over 1,200 professionals who make technology decisions – the respondents came from 16 industries and 13 countries. As part of the analysis, three different types of organizations were identified:

Pacesetters (20%) believe emerging technologies are critical to their business success and are using them to enable new operating/business models. They’re also adopting ahead of their competition.

Followers (55%) agree that these technologies are important and can provide critical capabilities and differentiation, but they generally trail Pacesetters in adoption.

Dabblers (25%) are generally behind or, at best, on par with competitors in terms of adoption. They’re less strategic in their use of emerging technologies, namely citing greater efficiency or new capabilities in selected areas.

One common thread across all three of the identified groups is that security is a significant area of importance and concern. In fact, 62% of respondents cite security as one of the three most important areas facing their organization over the next two years, with 27% rating it number one. One interesting aspect is that, the less mature an organization is with respect to the four strategic technology areas, the more security rates as an area of importance and focus. Seventy-seven percent of the Dabblers cited security as a top-three area of importance, versus only 49% of the more mature Pacesetters. Why is that? Perhaps the Dabblers don’t fully understand, or trust, that there are security technologies, policies and practices that can ensure a more secure approach overall. Or perhaps they lack the experience the Pacesetters have.

“Security and privacy are not always treated as first-order problems. Things are deployed and made widely available without regard for security and privacy. In a best-case scenario, security and privacy are thought of as add-ons. Worst case, they’re ignored completely.”
– Dr. Eugene Spafford, Professor and Executive Director of the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security, Purdue University

Besides being an area of significant importance, security is also seen as a significant barrier to technology adoption by the survey respondents. Information security is ranked as one of the top two barriers to adoption across the four technology areas – more than integration, inadequate skills or regulation and compliance. Overall, security is the biggest barrier for a majority of respondents for mobile (61%) and cloud (56%) adoption. Security is cited less often as the top adoption barrier in social (47%) and analytics (31%). As shown by the dark blue bars in the graph below, there isn’t a huge gap between the groups (9-11%) when it comes to security concerns, but, in general, less mature Dabblers see security as more of a barrier than the more mature Pacesetters. The exception is analytics, which has the lowest adoption barrier. Perhaps Pacesetters better understand the potential risks in implementing advanced analytic systems.

Another part of the security wall blocking the full realization of the benefits of the four technologies is that organizations’ current IT security policies aren’t sufficient. The figure above generally shows correlations between viewing security as a barrier to adoption (dark blue bars) and inadequate security policies (light blue bars). The Pacesetters are more confident across the board, with a majority saying that their security policies are adequate. The “adequate policies gap” between the Pacesetters and Dabblers ranges from 13% to 32%, a fairly wide margin. This tells us that organizations that have the right security policies in place are more confident, and less likely to see security as a barrier. For the others, there is a gap between their fears and taking the steps needed to address those fears.

Another tool organizations are using to attack the security wall is skills development. A majority of the respondents know that security is an issue and are working hard to boost their confidence. Overall, 70% of organizations are planning to develop or acquire skills in “mobile security and privacy” and “cloud security” – the two technology areas where security is seen as the biggest barrier.

Security is tightly intertwined with the four technology areas discussed. You shouldn’t pursue cloud, mobile, social or analytics endeavors without also focusing on needed security technologies, skills, policies and practices. The more you focus on policies and skills, the less likely you will see security as an impediment. Treat security as a business imperative and make it a priority. Design security in from the start of any project. Doing this will increase confidence and help to tear down the walls that are slowing the adoption of important, transformative technologies.

Do you know which industry is adopting analytics fastest? Do you know which industry has the biggest problem with social skills? Now you can find out.

The latest IBM Tech Trends Study surveyed over 1200 IT and business decision-makers – IT managers, business professionals and IT practitioners from 16 different industries and 13 countries – to assess how and why enterprises are adopting four emerging technologies – Mobile, Analytics, Cloud and Social Business – that are dramatically transforming how enterprises operate.

The study showed that Business Analytics and Mobile Computing represent a large swell, with over half of respondents already adopting these technologies. Cloud Computing and Social Business form a coming wave, with 40% currently piloting or planning to adopt by 2014. Furthermore, enterprises’ projected investment in the four areas is surging: 55% or more plan to increase investment in Mobile, Cloud, and Business Analytics, and 43% project increased investment in Social Business.

Despite the momentum in these areas, the study also uncovered a critical shortage of IT skills: Across all four technology areas, only about 1 in 10 companies reports having all the skills needed to be successful, and a quarter of respondents report major skill gaps.

A Deeper Dive: the Tech Trends Industry Dashboard

Today we’re launching a new interactive dashboard that allows you to explore the study findings in a dynamic way, by industry and by tech area. You can investigate adoption, investment, and skills for a particular industry within each tech area and sort to see how that industry compares to others, or to the cross-industry average.

Here’s one example. I chose Analytics, then Adoption Levels, and sorted by “Deployment” (and also clicked to “show percentages”):

We see that Insurance, Media and Entertainment, and Banking are the top three front runner industries in terms of high adoption of Analytics. Where does your industry fall?

You can also click on a particular industry name to bring up a graph specific to that industry; here we see Analytics skill levels reported by Media and Entertainment organizations:

It appears that Media and Entertainment is doing better on Analytics skills than the average: 23% have all the skills they need for Analytics, versus just 13% across all industries.

Sharing your insights

Are you successfully surfing one of the big tech waves but getting knocked down by another? Regarding your enterprise itself, do you think you’re outpacing your industry, keeping up, or lagging?

If you have particular insights about your industry’s position, please share them. All the graphs you encounter in the exploration are shareable – use the social media buttons or the embed code located beneath each graph to embed the graph within a blog, web page, or social media site. The embedded graph retains all the interactive functionality of the full dashboard.

Happy exploring – and we hope you’ll join the conversation around these findings!

What gap?

We hear a lot of chatter about a growing IT skills gap, both here in the US and globally. A recent New York Times article provided some statistics that were both frightening and illuminating. Approximately 20 percent of American adults don’t use the Internet at home, work, or school, and don’t own a web-enabled mobile device. While the government has funded a $7 billion effort to expand Internet access across the country, there has been little to no increase in adoption. Employment opportunities are increasingly web-based, but digital literacy rates have remained stagnant.

This gap is not only apparent in the general population, but also in the IT workforce. At the Center for Applied Insights, skills gaps often emerge in our studies as top barriers to success in specific fields. Our 2012 Tech Trends study, which surveyed more than 1200 IT professionals, found that only 1 in 10 organizations has all the skills it needs to be successful. This indicates a major gap – and when we talked to students and educators to get headlights into the future - roughly 75 percent of them report a moderate to major gap in their ability to meet the skill needs of the IT workforce. If the workforce of tomorrow and their teachers are telling us the gap is this big – clearly there’s a problem.

There is also a major skills gap in the security realm. In “Cybersecurity education for the next generation”, we addressed the need for cybersecurity-related academic programs around the world. Less than 60 percent of the students and educators surveyed believe their academic programs address the creation and development of IT security practices for emerging technologies such as Mobile, Cloud, and Social Business.

How can we close it?

Forbes, like the New York Times, wrote an article about the skills gap, emphasizing the disconnect between traditional education institutions and the current, fast-changing job market. Bottom line: institutions aren’t evolving as quickly as they should; only 42 percent of employers believe recent graduates are ready for work. Forbes’ solution? Job seekers must take it upon themselves to develop their own skills, by utilizing online resources. At the same time, companies must invest in comprehensive training programs for their diverse group of new employees, and make job requirements clearer. Noticeably absent was a suggestion for how traditional education institutions can improve. IBM has a tactic to address this. Ad Age featured a story on how IBM, in partnership with its clients, works with academic institutions to design programs that prepare students for real world IT work experience. Examples of these programs include integration with GM at Michigan State, and GlaxoSmithKline at Yale.

At the IBM Center for Applied Insights, we’ve looked at the IT skills gap from both the supply and demand sides. In terms of demand, our Tech Trends paper provides suggestions for IT leaders and practitioners on how to close this gap. For IT leaders, we suggest encouraging skill development across a range of disciplines, designing diverse teams and using social tools to assemble expertise, and extending the skills mission beyond IT, making business leaders smarter consumers of analytics. For practitioners, we suggest concentrating on integrating expertise and deepening specialized skills while broadening knowledge across new areas. Practitioners must combine areas of expertise to deliver more value, strengthen business acumen, and use social tools to solicit and supply expertise.

On the supply side, we discovered that cybersecurity education programs are entering a period of transformation. In order to work in concert with today’s demands, we suggest five key initiatives. (1) Increase awareness of security across the academic community, and produce more graduates from cybersecurity programs. (2) Treat security education as a global issue. (3) Approach security comprehensively, linking technical to non-technical fields. (4) Seek innovative ways to fund labs and pursue real-world projects. (5) Advance a “science of security”.

As technology continues to rapidly transform, skills gaps will continue to emerge. While we won’t try to tackle the 20 percent of non-Internet users in the US population, we in the Tech world have the tools to bridge the gaps in the IT workforce. We must be innovative, adaptable, and forward-thinking. What are the next skills gaps that we’ll explore? Stay tuned for more studies from the Center for Applied Insights that address this skills gap, specifically looking at IT leadership in Africa.

Susanne Hupfer, Consultant, IBM Center for Applied Insights
Our director, Steve Rogers, recently interviewed Paul Brunet, IBM Vice President of ISVs, Start-ups, and Academic Programs, about his perspective on the 2012 Tech Trends study. Whether you're an IT or business decision-maker, an academic, or an IT practitioner, you may discover valuable insights and recommendations in their broad-ranging conversation.

IT and business leaders:
Why are CEOs regarding technology and skills as top concerns -- now outranking even market and economic forces? Why is it crucial to leverage emerging technologies for competitive advantage?
Paul discusses four technology areas -- mobile, cloud, social business, and business analytics -- and contrasts adoption and skill levels in mature and growth markets. He covers challenges to adoption -- such as security, skill gaps, and integration -- and explains why security is a business imperative. IT and business decision-makers may also be eager to learn more about the elite "pacesetter" group identified by the study, who are unlocking competitive advantage by being more market-driven, experimental, and analytical.

Academics:
How can academia better monitor the needs of the enterprise and teach relevant skills their students will need upon graduation?
Paul also examines how using sandboxes and collaborative spaces can encourage experimentation, skills development, and collaboration across universities and practitioner areas.

Practitioners:
Where should you be expanding your skills? What traits are IT leaders looking for today?

Paul and Steve talk about the importance of integrating business along with IT skills.

The study explores how enterprises are responding to the opportunities and risks introduced by new technologies.This year, we surveyed over 1,200 IT and business decision makers to determine why, when, and how their organizations adopt four pivotal emerging technologies – mobile, analytics, cloud and social business technologies – that are rapidly reshaping how enterprises operate.

Are you in the lead, or is your organization falling behind? You can use the adoption and investment statistics we discovered to help you assess where your organizationstands:

Business Analytics and Mobile Computing are already quite mainstream, with over 50% of respondents deploying.Cloud Computing and Social Business represent a coming wave, with 40% either already piloting the technologies, or planning to adopt them within two years.Moreover, planned investment levels in the four technologies over the next two years indicate that all are moving full steam ahead: 55% or more of respondents plan to increase investment in Mobile, Cloud, and Business Analytics, and 43% plan to increase their investment in Social Business. You can click on the following infographic to take a deeper dive:

Despite the foothold of these technologies and the enthusiastic investment landscape, the report cites critical IT skill gaps that threaten to slam on the brakes just as organizations are hoping to leverage these technologies for their strategic advantage:

Across all four technology areas, only roughly 1 in 10 companies report having all the skills they need to be successful, and one-quarter of respondents report major skill gaps.

We also surveyed about 700 educators and students about these technology areas, and according to their responses, the skill gap is poised to get even worse:

About one-half of academic respondents report major gaps in their institution’s ability to meet the needs of the IT workforce.

Security also continues to be a major concern. In fact, Security is rated as the #1 barrier to adoption for mobile, cloud and social business, and the #2 barrier to adoption for business analytics.

What can you learn from those making the most progress applying these technologies for strategic advantage?

We asked respondents to rate the four emerging technologies’ importance to their businesses and also to rate their enterprises’ pace of adoption relative to competitors. We identified an elite group of Pacesetters who are forging ahead faster than others – despite the adoption hurdles – and who are using emerging technologies in more strategic ways.

If you want to get your organization onto the technology fast track (or keep it there), there are a number of interesting lessons you can take from the Pacesetters. We found that Pacesetters are more likely to exhibit three distinguishing traits that help them capitalize on the potential of mobile, analytics, cloud and social technologies. They are:

More market-driven

More analytical

More experimental

So, how are Pacesetters managing to stay ahead of the competition? As it turns out, they’re very experimental in their approach to developing IT skills. Rather than wait until there’s clear business demand for new skills, Pacesetters start building skills ahead of time: they are nine times more likely to experiment with technologies that don’t yet have a clear business application, and twice as likely to proactively develop skills to meet anticipated needs.

To learn more about the study results and how you can follow the pacesetters’ lead in technology adoption, you can check out the complete IBM 2012 Tech Trends report and a variety of other resources.

Don't miss the paper's list of concrete recommendations for becoming Pacesetters. We invite you to join in the discussion and let us know what you think about the study and its recommendations!